I would like to know what laws were broken in the process of this.?

On Monday, March 6th, 2008, I was working the office that I and a coworker pay rent for. I am 17, and he is 16, and we run an eBay store. My coworkers mom works in the same office, and was being acused of stealing money from person who owns the office, who she does finances for. My coworker and I had nothing to do with the situation, but were told we would have to leave. We had to give our keys over, and they changed the locks on the door. They asked if there was anything in the office needed to support of families with, or that we wished to take. We both said our computers, both our personal computers that we work on there, and a laptop I was also using. They said no. I told them I needed to laptop to do a report for school, and then told I could only take it if they could search it. I told them I did not want them to search it, but they did anyway and said it was ok. I do not know what they were searching for, and was never told what. Continued below.

They then made us leave without letting us take our eBay inventory, and the computers we both said we wanted to take. They also said they would be searching the computers, which we disagreed with. There was no police officer present at the time, and they also did not have a warrent or any documents saying this was ok. They have shut down or eBay business for the time being, because we can not send out anything that was sold. We can also prove that from the office we were kicked out of, two days after we were kicked out of it, they changed our eBay account password. That means that accessed the email it was signed up on. They also changed our PayPal password.

I would like to know what laws they broke if any, and any other information. Our lawyer we are hiring isn't taking us seriously right now, we believe because of our age. This would help him see that we are serious. Thanks!

I recommend that you interview attorneys immediately not only for the possiblity of having these people pay you damages for the damage that they did to your business, but also defense attorneys in case these people attempt to accuse you of committing a crime.

You need to interview more attorneys if your attorney is not taking you seriously.

It appears the brunt of your question is "can non police search without a warrant?" to which the answer is YES!

Only government is required to adhere to the requirement for a search warrant to obtain evidence.

Because this was a private business and your computer equipment was a part of the business they also have the ability to insure you don't steal business information!

THe mistake you made was letting it get to where it was.

When they told you to leave, assuming your rent was paid, you should have just flat out said "no".

If they got nasty, YOU should have called the cops. Right now, I would go back and demand ALL your property, and if they won't give it to you, call the cops.

Richard

Do you have your computers back yet? If not call the police and report them stolen. Have the people who took them arrested.

The first law that was broken was in renting the space to you because neither of you is old enough to sign a legal rental contract or have a PayPal account. It goes downhill steadily from there.

Your next stop should be the local District Attorney. Do not do anything anyone else here says, even if I say it. Laws can vary between jurisdictions and all you can do here is get irrelevant advice.